


Gentle

by sweetpeapoppy



Category: Formula 1 RPF, Formula E RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 11:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13974249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpeapoppy/pseuds/sweetpeapoppy
Summary: When treading carefully, even gentle steps can have a big impact.





	Gentle

“Soooo?”

“So, what?”

“So, how’s life with your new me?”

“Dan, no, not this again.” It annoyed him that Daniel didn’t use him name, but he knew any attempt to make him say André would give him cause to make even more fun of him.

“Yes Jev this again.” Dan laughed loudly. “He’s good looking, don’t you think?”

They’d spent their fair share of nights in bed together, Jean-Eric couldn’t help but be drawn to Daniel, he was fun and gorgeous. Hard to resist. But it was fading once Dan left Toro Rosso, and it finished completely when he lost his Formula One seat. Their paths crossed, but they never revisited the past. “He’s okay.”

“You’re the worst liar, I’ve seen your Insta stories, he likes you too.”

“Does not.”

“He really does, well I think so anyway, you look cute together.”

“ _Dan_ ,” Jean-Eric whined.

“ _Jev_.” Dan replied in kind. “Seriously though, you should see if he’s interested, you’d make a cute couple.”

“Fuck off.”

“Love you too.” Dan left him with some kissing noises.

Jean-Eric smiled at the phone once he’d hung up, Dan never failed to make him happy, or at least put a smile on his face. Dan already knew what he was hoping, that André was into him.

\---

He hated Dan immensely. And he was texting him that as André came to sit next to him.

“Why do you hate Dan?” André peered over to see who Jean-Eric was messaging.

“Oh, ah, is a joke, I don’t hate him. He, uh, put a thought in my head, and now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Ah, must be something dirty!” André laughed as Jean-Eric stuffed the phone in his pocket, he was blushing too which made him look...cute.

“No, is not, Dan is just being stupid.” André shuffled close enough so his thigh was pressed tightly against his. The heat was immediate, and he couldn’t stop his impulse to lean in.

“You see him much?” It wasn’t too hard to miss their friendship, or whatever it was, rumours swirled around the paddock about so many drivers it became white noise. But anything about Jean-Eric sort of stuck out for him, he had a thing for the feisty Frenchman.

“Um, no, not so much anymore, he has Formula One, I have -”

“Me!” André laughed, “you have Formula E and me.”

“Is so much better.” He made an attempt not to sound so earnest, but it was the truth, André joining the team was the best thing to happen to him in a while. He had a great car that he could win with, and a teammate who he genuinely liked.

“Are you guys both ready?”

Looking up in unison, they saw their press officer stood in front of them with a hopeful expression on her face. Both smiling as they stood, they were already laughing before they stood in front of the camera.

“Can you just…” She sighed as they began to mess about, she was supposed to be a press officer, but instead she felt more like a babysitter with the pair of them. She blamed André for being the bad influence, Jean-Eric was never this naughty before with Esteban, Stéphane or Qing. But when she asked around, André was the consummate professional. “Behave?”

They had to stand in front of the camera and be directed around, answer a few questions and do as they were told, but André couldn’t help himself. He loved to wind Jean-Eric up, make him laugh and smile, being around him made him want to be silly and playful. It was infectious.

Licking a finger without Jean-Eric seeing, he reached up to stick it in his ear, Jean-Eric ducked away but he caught his finger to give it a tug. He couldn’t help but laugh at the incredulous expression on Jean-Eric’s face, and retaliate in kind when he hand flew at his crotch, but thankfully missed. When Jean-Eric grabbed at his neck, André went to pick him up, he was just so ridiculously light.

“Did you actually really do that?” He stuck his wet finger into his ear! He was pointing at André, but he made some stupid fart noise with his tongue before he went in with a jab to his stomach. Well, it was perhaps a bit lower than that, he deserved it for being so disgusting. He held for a moment of disbelief over the whole situation before swinging an arm around André’s neck, but he got picked up so easily and dumped on the floor.

“Got that out of your system?” More sniggering, but they eventually got themselves together to do the very simple task. “Right, okay, just both of you stand there.”

\---

“You’re so light.”

“Huh?”

“When I picked you up, you weigh nothing, no wonder you’re getting ahead of me.” André grinned as they snuck off for a coffee.

“Ah, well, I am heavier now.” It had taken him a while to get his head around putting on weight, years of conditioning by Red Bull had him watching every single mouthful of food, every sip of water. 

“Is good, you look good.” It wasn’t like he had put on tonnes of weight, just enough to stop him looking so ill all the time. He’d heard the stories about him ending up in hospital from dieting, and he’d been angry at the time, but had not known him at the time well enough to speak to him.And he felt too removed from Formula One to speak out.

Hiding himself in his coffee, he let the warmth of André’s words swim through him, he thought he looked good. “I do?”

“Of course you do.” The moment the words left his lips, André regretted it, it was far too close to the truth.

“Merci.” He could feel his face heat up and turned his head slightly to hide, but André kept on talking, kept on making him talk back.

Jean-Eric was stumbling over his words, that and the blush over his cheeks had him enthralled. He was utterly captivated. “How about we go get a drink somewhere?”

“Are drinking.” He took another sip of coffee and set the cup down

“A proper drink.” André proposed quietly. “With, uh, dinner?”

His mind was racing, and he knew it was all in his head. “Is...is not time for dinner.”

“Later will be time.” Draining the last of his coffee, André put his cup in his lap to fiddle with it, so he could have something else to concentrate on as he waited for Jean-Eric’s answer.

“Oui.” He was sweating, actually sweating over a man. And just dinner, it definitely wasn’t a date. “Would be nice.” 

They’d had dinner before, but never alone, there had always been friends or the team around. He was sweating. The idea of having Jean-Eric to himself for a couple of hours, even in public, was enough to make him sweat. They walked out of the coffee shop together with a promise to see each other later.

\---

He was expecting other people, he certainly wasn’t expecting a corner table in a softly lit restaurant as he was shown over by the maître d'. André looked so handsome, incredible so, making his palms clammy and his heart rate begin to race. “Hey.”

“Hello.” Jean-Eric was so effortlessly stylish, he could see people watching him as he walked over. “You look handsome.”

He’d wanted to make an effort, he wanted André to take notice of him, and the risk was well worth it as it was just going to be the two of them. If it had been a group thing he was just going to lie and say he had a date later. “Merci, you are too like always.”

A bolt of heat rushed through him as Jean-Eric spoke, he wanted to scrap dinner and skip to the fun stuff. Like kissing. He really wanted to kiss him.

“André?”

“Huh?”

“You are day-dreaming on me?”

“Uh, no, no way. Definitely not.”

He enjoyed every second of dinner, André was so attentive, and as they sunk a couple bottles of red wine, he began to touch. Grasping his forearm, he was finding it hard to not fall for the fantasy in his head. He had to remind himself that André had always been unafraid to be close to him. Right from the start, he had touched him one way or another.

“No, I’m paying.”

“André, no, we split.”

“I want to, I invited you on this, uh, date.”

It was a date. I was really a date.

Jean-Eric was sort of staring at him, but not in a horrified way, but curious, with pink cheeks. He was definitely blushing. “Jean-Eric?” If he was about to freak out, he was ready to lie through his teeth about it being a date.

“Jev.” He reminded him gently. “You always call me Jean-Eric.”

“I like your name.”

“I like yours too.”

André couldn’t deny that the way Jean-Eric said his name excited him, it hit low in his stomach. “Is good then. Shall we go?”

“Ouis.” It wasn’t like they could hold hands, but they stayed close as they walked to the car. “So, what else do you do on a date?”

“I can show you if you like?”

“Merci.” If the streets had been clear he would have hoped to have been kissed, but he had to settle for André pressing against him a little as he opened the passenger door for him. “Come back to mine.”

“Mmm, okay. I like this scarf.” Running his hands down the silky material, André teased him with a fleeting moment of closeness, his cologne teased him right back.

There was no way he was going to tell André about the amount of time he spent picking one out, after all the time he spent choosing whether or not he was going to wear one at all. “Merci.” He wasn’t far off saying the same in English, André was pushing at every button, nerve, and sense. “Let’s go.”

They were both expecting tension, but within minutes they were laughing and joking, being silly, trying to trip each other up as they walked to Jean-Eric’s apartment. André had spent plenty of time there before, but as Jean-Eric opened the door, he felt the nerves creep back in, there was expectation now instead of hidden feelings.

“Come here,” André whispered.

Jean-Eric wandered back from the kitchen and loved the way André tugged him closer by his scarf. “Thank you for dinner.”

“It’s not a problem, thanks for your company.” He was mentally preparing himself to kiss Jean-Eric, reassuring himself that Jean-Eric was okay with it being a date, that he had his hands on his waist to make sure he wasn’t about to run away, that the reason why he blushed were because...

André was looking at him softly, his gaze moving around his face before settling on his lips, and he couldn’t take it. He could barely breathe with André being so close without action. So he leant forward just enough to bring their lips together, grazing his against André’s he felt the sigh before he heard it. His hands moved up his scarf to cup a cheek, and to play with the hair at the base of his head, it left Jean-Eric weak at the knees as André licked into his mouth.

Smiling out of the kiss, Jean-Eric nuzzled in for a moment before they both leaned back to see each other. They were gauging each other’s reaction, but their expressions were calm, sated, at ease. 

“You have to stop hitting me below the belt.” André moved in to mutter against hs ear.

“Why?” Jean-Eric grinned.

“Because if it’s broken, I can’t use it.” André could feel Jean-Eric chuckle against his body, and couldn’t help squeezing him close. “So be gentle,” he warned playfully.

“Hmm, are you sure you want only gentle?”


End file.
